Best comment yet!

Thanks for bringing us back to earth man.

>> ^MrFisk:

Why, what really happened?

Holy crap man! Have you seen Fox News? (I'll bet you have.)

Again, I don't understand the need to deflect this to Obama as you guys are doing. I could give a SH!T about Obama. The issue is that this woman, no matter who she is or where she comes from, is an idiot! It wouldn't matter if she was running for the presidency or for a local city council.

The sad thing is that if she would either do a little research or broaden her talking points a little she could potentially ride her charisma and popularity to great heights (god help us all) but instead she talks and talks saying things that she thinks people want to hear with her mouth in drive and her brain in neutral. This makes me think her to be egotistical and lazy; "I don't need to prepare, the people love me and everything I say." No wonder the McCain campaign staff turned on her.

>> ^bobknight33:

All Quaumtum was doing
is pointing out the blatant Bias the media has. He correctly points out that time after time after time after time after time the current fool called the president gets a pass every times he fucks up.
But the media will dog Palin on every opportunity they can.
When will you get your self absorbed heads out your asses and see the truth? You heads have been up you asses so long you all think you shit doesn't stink.

>> ^ponceleon:
Really quantum?
Defending her just makes you a troll. Please. I like you more than Shiny right now, just take it back and we can still be friends.

Oh Quantum... deflect much?

I don't remember seeing anyone suggest a comparison between her and Obama prior to your post. I believe that everyone was assessing her performance against, say... a sanitation technician or perhaps an elementary school child. You know, the common folk.

But since you brought it up... There is a huge difference between someone making a mistake due to their ignorance of culture, or geography, or even just having a plain old brain fart. But when you take the time to ramble on with complete ignorance about a well known historical event of which you obviously have no idea, as Sarah clearly did here, and try to pass it off as if you are conducting a lesson or saying something profound... well that is just a combination of ego and stupidity.

To give her the benefit of the doubt, perhaps she was just trying too hard, doesn't know how to check herself and found herself 10 words into a sentence with no idea how she got there or how to finish it up without sounding like an idiot... and she ended up sounding like an idiot.

Regardless, I am tired of Sarah Palin and I hope that one day she gets left behind by the world of politics and personality and we never have to experience her flavor of nonsense again. Sarah Palin, reduced to a footnote in the political history of the country as a person that did nothing, changed nothing, knew nothing

Shiny, I am not saying that you are wrong here but I am wondering if you can provide any specific examples of atheist kookiness? Now remember, this can't be general kookiness, it must be kookiness that is specific to atheism.

Please provide the source where possible.

Thanks
>> ^shinyblurry:

>> ^ponceleon:
Where's shiny to tell us how loving and wonderful Christians are?

What, you don't think there are any atheist kooks out there? I just don't have the poor taste to try to make a spectacle out of atheism by dredging up the lunatic fringe. I have the intelligence to realize that those people don't represent atheists as a whole.

**sigh**

I think that we should all be able to agree on the following...
- The human mind can become very easily confused.
- Vivid hallucinations are a well documented phenomenon.
- There are many things that can impact a persons perception; narcotics, a lack of oxygen, too much oxygen, lack of sleep, some bad pizza before bed, etc.
- Those that are in a fragile or compromised state of mind are more susceptible to certain "experiences".
- In times of stress the human mind can latch onto an idea and cling to that idea like a life raft.
- People can truly believe in what they experienced regardless of any contrary evidence.
- A person can pass a polygraph if they believe in the truth of their answers.
- Just because someone believes that they experienced something it doesn't make it so.

Why is it that if someone has an "experience" that is in any way associated with religion they are pushed forward by supporters of that religion as being validation of their beliefs but if someone has an "experience" that is associated with Elvis, Aliens, or Bigfoot they are deemed to be lunatics? How different is it really to suggest that you were visited by the omnipotent creator of the universe than it is to suggest that you were visited by an intelligent alien life form from a far off planet?

They tried to implement the single transferable vote here but it's method and benefit was communicated in such a convoluted and complicated way and had such ardent opposition (via mis-information) from the incumbent parties that it failed to be adopted.

Too bad.

Amen brother (or sister as the case may be).

>> ^Reefie:

He's the President, can't he just say "Bill, please STFU for 2 minutes so I can finish what I'm saying"...

This appears to just be a conversation between two equal individuals about current events, and of course therein lies the problem.

Bill O'Reilly is incredibly self absorbed and has no respect for Obama but he should at least have respect for the office that Obama holds and as such should maintain some sense of propriety when speaking with him. Now don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting that he should show reverence, I am just saying that civility and courtesy would add legitimacy to this so called interview.

Bill doesn't care about the answers to the questions as to him the question is more a method through which he can express his own opinion on the matter. So why should he wait for an answer? He must truly think that people are more interested in his opinion than they are the President's.

As for the general value of this "conversation" that we have been made privy to...
Well, this dynamic has been around for a long long time.

"The 'interview,' as at present managed, is generally the joint product of some humbug of a hack politician and another humbug of a newspaper reporter." ["The Nation," Jan. 28, 1869]

Humbug - a person who is not what he or she claims or pretends to be; impostor.

Ahem, well...

Will we all die? Yes of course.
Do we know when it will happen? Very few do.
Does anyone truly know what happens when you die? Certainly not.
Is there anything that we can do to influence what happens after we die. Religious people seem to think so and worry about it incessantly. Atheists feel that we cannot and as a result tend not to worry about it.

From what I can see there are essentially two ways to view the subject, theistically or philosophically.
Theists will say that what we do before death determines what happens to us after death. I see this as the more selfish perspective on life. "Help other people and save yourself."

As for the philosophical view point...

"Death, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, since when we are, death is absent, and, when death is present, we are not any more. It is nothing, then, either to the living or to the dead."
- Epicurus, 341-270

My advice: Stop worrying about what happens after you die and instead focus on the life that you have to live. Live it to the fullest and positively influence the world around you while you are here. Help others not for your own salvation but rather only for the sake of the act of kindness itself and the effect that it will have on others. Your true immortality will come from the legacy that you leave behind when you are gone.

>> ^Gallowflak:

Anyone who honestly doesn't care about death, or who isn't disturbed by the idea of their own intelligence and consciousness being permanently destroyed is either A: not aware of what that actually means, or B: alien enough to me that our differences are completely irreconcilable.

I couldn't stop staring at the reflection of the teleprompter in her glasses.

I am unable to bring myself to like this woman. I have watched her and I have looked for a behavioral pattern that would help me to discern what motivates her. All that I can see is selfishness, zealotry, and mindless far right wing fundamentalism. The only time that I have seen her display emotion that might not be described as disingenuous was when she was directly confronted by an Alaskan resident who was not happy with her. It was that sudden look of surprise at the possibility that someone might not think that she is wonderful. There is no humility here, there is only ego. I get no sense that she has ever done anything in her public life that could be considered truly selfless.

I am tired of her and I hope that one day she gets left behind by the world of politics and personality and we never have to experience her flavor of nonsense again. Sarah Palin, reduced to a footnote in the political history of the country as a person that did nothing, changed nothing, knew nothing.

I don't always agree with Penn but he is bang on here. I have always been an atheist, even as a child I felt no connection to religion. Any involvement that I ever had with religion felt uncomfortable and plain wrong. No one could ever answer my critical thinking questions sufficiently enough to make me even consider it. When I got older I read through as much of the bible as I could manage and found none of the salvation or enlightening that was promised. All I found was a poorly written collection of stories loaded with mixed messages and undertones that I personally felt to be morally questionable.

For me I need no manuscript to tell me to respect my neighbor or to prevent me from harming another person. Oddly, many of those people who celebrate this supposed "good book" and it's message do exactly the opposite.

You know what, I agree with you completely. My family has benefited tremendously in a democratic, capitalistic environment and I would never trade it for any other system in the world. But (there is always a but) I think that, like everything else, we have the capacity to abuse our rights and freedoms. Can you not honestly say that a large number of people have had their priorities perverted by the corporate worlds desire (nay need) to retrieve every dollar that is paid out (plus 10) by trying to convince consumers that they need all the non-essential junk and services that they offer? Don't get me wrong I am just as much a part of the problem but I have the nagging, guilty pain of self awareness that does not allow me to turn a blind eye to it. I would just love to see us get the remaining "ugly" out of the system and have something that we can look at and be truly proud of.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Yeah, capitalism has a dark side. So what? As a system it's lifted more people out of poverty than any other, AND is also the most charitable. Beats the hell out of food riots and forced labor camps.

BRAVO!

>> ^mgittle:

I'm going to open a store. Then on Black Friday, I'm going to offer CRAZY GOOD deals to get hysterical people to line up. When I open my doors and everyone rushes in, that's when I reveal that the entire store is really a rocket ship that launches and flies directly into the sun.

I completely agree. Our priorities (as Lewis Black would say) are askew.

>> ^JiggaJonson:

quality
Who says America's economy is bad? In Somalia they do this shit for water.

Is this what capitalism gets you?

The consumer reality...
Real wages have been frozen since the 70s, consumer debt and home foreclosures are at an all time high, and more than 10% of the population is unemployed.

The corporate reality...
Profits have never been higher, more money is spent on advertising than is donated to charities, executive bonuses are in the billions annually.

All of this is clearly evident and still people are more worried about getting $20 off an XBox than they are about the wellbeing of the people around them. We are being sold a lie, materialism is not what benefits the general population, community is what we are missing these days.